Welcome to Texas justice: You might beat the rap, but you won't beat the ride.

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

Sad blogging

I'm feeling sad today, so no blogging till mañana.

No, it's not just because Rep. Patrick Rose, D-Dripping Springs, whose campaigns I helped in 2002 and 2004, voted for this piece of homophobic garbage.

Ironically, the other state representative whose general election campaign I helped in 2004, Rep. Ray Allen, R-Grand Prairie, voted against banning gay people from becoming foster parents, so by working for the anti-abortion Republican, I kept my homophobia quotient to just 50%, I guess is the good news. But no, that's not why I'm sad. It's personal. I won't tell you.

I understand you being upset about the bill that passed in Texas, but I'm sure you have seen the news that Connecticut has approved civil unions! Not quite what it should be, but we are getting there. One step forward and two steps backward, but eventually we trip going backwards and start walking the right way. One foot in front of the other.

Thanks a lot, folks. Though Mark, I gotta tell you, I'm glad for Connecticut, but Texas has counties bigger than that state, both in size and population. (What are Luxembourg's policies, I wonder? I kid because I love.) We've got a lot of gay folks down here who might be looking at some really regressive legislation soon. To my mind, this was the most disgraceful one so far, but it could and in the short term predictably will get worse.

That WAS a little painful, Sarah, but much deserved. I'll reserve final judgment to review his overall session record before deciding get off his train altogether, but he'd better start casting some DAMN GOOD votes to keep me on board.

The problem with this vote is that it's sort of a "have you stopped beating your wife yet?"-type of question. Either he's a bigot, or he's cynically pandering to bigotry he thinks appeals to voters in his district. The alternatives are as inescapable as they are unflattering. There's not one good thing in that amendment to hang your hat on, nothing that helps anybody -- it's just an indefensible, mean-spirited piece of junk.

Politically, it's the equivalent of supporting Strom Thurmond for president in the '40s. In the long run he'll have no choice but to openly recant and apologize, call it a "youthful indiscretion," and move on. After Lawrence, he's standing against the tide of history.

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